So Close
by Cherie-24-Addict
Summary: After one of the toughest days at CSI, Ryan takes Natalia home and carefully  maybe not-so-carefully  helps her to deal with the events of today. The best comfort they will find will be in each other.Tag to 9x05, Some RN. Part 4 of the Quinceanera series.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I've read CSI:Miami fanfic for months, but this is my first actual oneshot for it. Implied R/N feelings, though no established relationship. This is also part 4 of 15 of the Quinceanera series, a birthday gift for my friend Iwait4theRain. Please R&R, and let me know how I did._

Natalia Boa Vista laughed and made a face at her partner. "Remind me never to trust you with a vending machine."

She stood by the door of the locker room as Ryan struggled to contain the multiple coins shooting out of said vending machine. She'd been waiting for him, since he was taking her home today, and then, of course, this happened. Figures that the guy with everything in order would be disheveled on a day like today.

"You could help me, Natalia," he groaned as he flailed, struggling to maintain control over the cash flow.

Natalia studied his face for a few seconds, then slowly walked over to the vending machine.

"I _might_ help you," she said slowly, "if…"

"If what?" he asked. "I'll do anything, come on, Natalia!"

"We order from Beijing Garden," she said.

"I'd be fine with that," he smiled.

"Really?" she said, surprised. "Thought you hated that place."

"I don't _hate_ it," he scoffed, "I just don't happen to be addicted to it. But if it means we can get out of here, then yes, we can order from Beijing Garden."

Natalia laughed, a deep, throaty chuckle. She took one of the quarters and calmly slid it into the vending machine.

"Total count: twenty-five cents," said a mechanical voice. The coin flow out of the machine immediately slowed to a standstill.

what…"

"Old trick my dad taught me," she said with a little grin. "You'd better be ready to go soon, or I will shoot you and hog all the Chinese food to myself."

To anyone else, this conversation would have been completely normal, and nothing could have been wrong. To Natalia's perceptive, caring eye, however, Ryan had stiffened ever so slightly when the word "shoot" had come out of her mouth. He wasn't telling the whole truth about what had happened in the warehouse; she knew it. Damn it.

"Earth to Natalia!" Ryan snapped his fingers in front of her face. "You okay?"

She blinked rapidly. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," she said quickly. "I'll be out front."

"Okay," he said warily. As she walked away, he wondered just how transparent he had been. Horatio had said to make sure Talia didn't know that she had fired off those shots. They were too close, dangerously close, but at the time he hadn't given a damn about his safety; all that mattered was that she relax in his arms and forget about the drug-induced hallucination. Protocol be damned, even if he'd been shot, as long as she turned out okay, it wouldn't really have mattered. This was Natalia, who meant more to him than any woman he'd ever met.

The car ride was… well. Ryan placed an order en route for Beijing Garden takeout, making sure to get Natalia's favorite dish. Other than that, the trip was pretty much silent, and slightly uncomfortable, too, seeing as Ryan did not, under any circumstances, want to get into the conversation that was bound to take place once they reached her house. It was never a good idea to tell your partner that she had fired off shots at you after being involuntary drugged by a greedy psychic. Natalia had managed to suck at shooting when she first started work at CSI, but now? Well, she was no Calleigh Duquesne (not that anyone was really in the mood for another Calleigh at the moment), but she was getting to be a damn good shot. Great when she had his back. Not so great when you were the target, and practice was about to start.

Meanwhile, to Natalia, Ryan's silence only confirmed her worst fears. She had shot at him. God, she'd shot at Ryan. H, too, but she knew she'd already been forgiven for that. She knew she could count on Ryan, but to what extent? Damn it, she could have killed him. _Thank God he wasn't hurt_, she thought to herself. _I would never be able to forgive myself if I had. Even if it wasn't my fault._

As they pulled up to her modest house, she opened her mouth for the first time in forty five minutes. "How close?" her voice cracked.

He looked at her, confused. "What?"

Her fingers danced over his arm hesitantly as she stared down at her seat. In a low voice, she elaborated, "How close did I come to shooting you today?"

Ryan tried to mask the grimace on his face, but he knew Natalia would see right through said mask. "We agreed to tell the truth, right?" he asked.

She didn't respond but instead began to ruffle through her bag.

"Natalia?"

She still refused to look at him.

"Talia!" He wrapped his fingers gently around her wrist. "Look at me. Hey, come on, look at me."

She stared up at him, eyes watering.

"Why don't we wait to talk about this until you're settled," he said amicably.

"I'm fine, Ryan," she pleaded. Yes, Natalia Boa Vista was pleading with him. Not to go any further, not to delve into what had happened, maybe not to be as big a presence in her current life as he was being. He could either ignore it or confront it.

The logical choice was right in front of him, and Ryan was nothing if not rational.

"No, you're not," he said softly.

"Ryan…please, stop it," she said. "I don't need your help." _I do want it._

He breathed. "Okay. I'll make sure the night shift watches over your car tonight."

She stared at him resignedly and took it as her cue to stand up. She got out of the car and, not being able to help it, began to storm towards her front door.

He shut the door behind him as he nearly fell out of his car trying to keep up with her. Miraculously, he made it to the doorstep two milliseconds before she did it.

She raised her eyebrows. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked.

"Oh, come on, Natalia," he scoffed, "you couldn't possibly cheat me out of Beijing Garden takeout." The look in his eyes, though, was far from playful; it was concerned, apprehensive, and the slightest bit hopeful.

She smiled, the first genuine one since before this insane case, and laughed out loud. "You are persuasive. I _guess_ I could let you come in."

An hour later, the two were camped out on the couch, watching another repeat of an old Jeff Dunham special.

"I can't believe I agreed to watching this," Natalia giggled as she took another sip of her beer.

Ryan, for his part, was dumbfounded. Talia had _giggled._ "Well, you know," he said, regaining his composure, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. My brother practically taped my eyelids open when this was on, and… it wasn't half bad, let's put it that way."

Things were comfortably silent for a moment, and then as Natalia leaned her head on his shoulder, another punch line came at them from a screen. Natalia could feel the reverberation of movement as Ryan quietly laughed. She soaked in the moment, knowing that she was going to be ruining it soon anyway.

"Are you gonna tell me what happened today?"

He looked at her and sighed. "Do you want me to?" he asked her. "Once I tell you, you can't take it back."

She quivered a little at this, and he pulled her just the tiniest bit closer. She breathed in deeply, in and out. "Okay. Tell me the whole story."

A pregnant pause filled the empty space. "About ten minutes after the psychic began your hypnosis, Horatio and I noticed that a loop of her voice was being played. We tried to get you to respond. You didn't. When we managed to trace you to the warehouse, we got inside and found you there." He took a deep breath. "To tell you the truth, Talia, I was scared as hell. Horatio and I stood on opposite sides of you, trying to calm you down. You… weren't you. You were scared as hell, legitimately frightened out of your wits. You started firing, closer and closer to us. I grabbed you around the waist and we fell to the ground. Horatio tried to get you to snap out of it, but you were so hyped up. You were crying, scared as hell, you had been drugged, and I couldn't do anything about it…"

Natalia sucked in a shallow breath. An uncharacteristic bugger of a tear slid down her cheek. "God, Ryan, I could have killed you."

"Frankly, I was more worried about the possibility of you hurting yourself," he whispered. "I didn't…couldn't…care about me, when it was your life on the line."

She allowed her head to lean fully against his chest now, and Ryan would be either an idiot, an ass, or blind to say that it didn't feel right. They sat like that for a minute, Jeff Dunham still cracking jokes against everybody on his program in the midst of the detectives' personal crisis.

"Does anyone know?" she asked in a small voice. God, of all the things she could have chosen to say to him, she picked that? Of all the things she wanted to say, but couldn't, she'd chosen the most selfish thing possible? Really, Natalia?

"Just you, me, and H," he murmured. "He didn't want you to know."

She chuckled throatily. "Why doesn't that surprise me? But then why did you tell me?"

He paused. "You deserve to know what happened," he said simply. "It's not like IAB is ever going to find out about this."

She nodded and, to his surprise, brushed her lips across his cheek. "Thank you," she said softly.

"For what? For making you feel bad?" he asked, utterly confused at what he could have done for her to warrant this.

"For nothing," she said. "And for everything."

As he looked down at her, he tilted his head to the side. "Do you get philosophical when you're drunk?"

"One day that saying will make sense to you, Ryan," she yawned as her eyelids fluttered shut. _Someday soon, I hope._

Within a few minutes, both were out on the couch, the crude laughter of a Comedy Central audience fading quickly as he unconsciously wrapped an arm around her waist and she buried her face into his chest, each knowing, even in sleep, that their partner brought with them the best kind of comfort.

_A/N: Come to the dark side and review - we have brownies!_


	2. Chapter 2

**_A/N: I didn't think I'd be doing a follow-up chapter, but with all the positive feedback I got from you guys, I decided to pull through. This is part 6 of the Quinceanera series. It's fluffier than the first chapter and is a little more romance-ish, but it's not quite there._**

**_Enjoy, review, and (hopefully) smile!_**

_Ring. Ring. Ring._

Groan.

Natalia moaned and rolled over on the couch , trying desperately to ignore the ringing of her phone. It wasn't exactly something that she wanted to be doing at seven in the morning on the day off she was forced to observe under duress. All she wanted to do was forget about the shitty previous day she'd had. As well as the nightmares she'd had to deal with silently during the night. God, she'd hoped she could have gotten over what happened, but apparently that hadn't gone over so well with her mind. She buried closer into the couch. Funny, she didn't remember the couch being that warm.

She also couldn't remember a time when Ryan Wolfe was equivalent to her couch.

Wait, _what?_

Okay, if she had to admit it to herself, it wasn't a big deal. Ryan had offered to drive her home, after all. Completely normal. Eating Chinese takeout and watching a Jeff Dunham special didn't quite constitute as crazy or protocol-breaking. And as for waking up to her friend? She'd fallen asleep against his shoulder. Not mind-blowing at all, to anyone.

Then why did she feel like she had a pit in her stomach?

She closed her eyes and decided to immerse herself in the feeling. She wasn't particularly a touchy-feely person, but she didn't really mind the position she was in right now. It felt nice; she wasn't going to complain and risk waking Ryan up before he wanted to. That, she knew, was just asking for trouble.

She released a deep breath and placed her head against his chest again and realized his arm was wrapped around her waist. His arm was probably wrapped loosely enough that she could slide out of his embrace and start to make breakfast before things got too uncomfortable.

Eh. It probably didn't matter too much. She was no Calleigh, who even before her obvious relationship had seemed a little awkward around Eric. This was Ryan, and he probably wouldn't hold whatever she did against her.

An hour and a half later, she woke up again, but this time, she was alone on the couch. She sat, up, instantly both confused and alert, as she tried to take in her surroundings. A tuft of her hair stuck out as she grabbed the blanket on the side of the couch. She pursed her lips and frowned. Ryan was missing. She stood up and grabbed her cell phone, pressing speed dial 3.

That's when she heard a ring coming from the kitchen.

She padded over softly, still wrapped up in the blanket and still having a bad hair day. She watched, amused, as Ryan looked at his phone, amused and slightly confused. He picked up the phone anyway.

"You're calling my cell phone as you're standing in the doorway." It wasn't a question.

She laughed, a little sheepish. "Yeah. Didn't see you on the couch, and…"

"…you're a little too groggy for eight thirty in the morning?" He smirked. "How the hell do you pull yourself out of bed every day?"

"Grudgingly, Ryan," she chuckled. "If not for the coffee, I don't know what I'd do."

"Good thing I started making something," he said. She walked toward him and he handed her a steaming mug of coffee.

"A mocha cappuccino for the lady," he said with an exaggerated bow.

"Just the way I like it," she said, raising her eyebrows. "Thanks, Ryan."

"Hey, I've screwed up your coffee once. Never again, I swear."

She couldn't help but duck her head and crack a smile. Then, her face became a little more thoughtful.

"Don't you have work today?" she asked, her voice still raspy from want of water.

"I switched my off day with Delko," he said casually.

"Ryan…" Natalia looked at him, shocked.

"What?"

"You went through all the trouble to switch your off day with Eric just so you could help me out?"

He looked her in the eyes, and his own softened a little. "I figured you'd like the company after everything that happened yesterday."

"You ever think maybe I didn't need the company?" she said angrily. "Ever think maybe I'd rather be left alone?"

He paused and considered this. "Actually, you know what?" he said. "It actually doesn't matter too much that you don't want the company. You need someone here to help you deal."

"And it's going to be you."

He huffed. "You're not complaining," he pointed out. "And you don't see anyone else volunteering."

"You're basically babysitting me."

"Nope. Consider this a favor from a friend."

"Why, though?" she asked, gulping down her coffee. "Why?"

He sighed and leaned against the countertop. "You were there for me through my gambling problem, through when I got fired from the lab. I'd like to think we've grown a little closer since then. You're having a hard time. It's okay not to be an impenetrable fortress all the time. Just…" he sighed again. "Just let me help you out for once, Talia."

Natalia bit her lip and squared her jaw, and it almost seemed to Ryan like she was battling her demons right then and there. Then, she looked at him seriously.

"So," she said. "You have any ideas for breakfast?"

RN * RN * RN * RN * RN

Later that afternoon, the two had found themselves in a very interesting situation.

"I can't believe I voluntarily allowed you to blindfold me," Natalia half-laughed as she shifted in the passenger seat. "This goes against everything I have ever learned!"

"Come on, Natalia," Ryan scoffed. "We're both CSIs; you really think I'm going to trick you into doing something crazy and dangerous?"

"Yeah, because you're definitely the crazy one in the group," she jibed.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "I can step out of my comfort zone."

"Says the one who cleans the spotless countertop after spilling a drop of water," she muttered.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, nothing at all," she said innocently. "Now tell me where you're taking me before I shoot you."

He couldn't help it – he began to laugh.

"It's not funny!" she pouted.

"You're kidding, right? It's funny as hell."

"You wouldn't have said that yesterday."

He tactfully ignored this jibe, as she knew he would. Still, to his credit (or perhaps to his detriment), he continued to laugh.

"How are you driving and laughing at the same time?" she wondered.

"I'm special, Natalia," he said.

Silence.

"Come on. You don't think I'm special?"

"Do I have to answer that?" she asked, the words coming out more delicately than she'd anticipated.

"Okay, I'm not going to take any more of this," he muttered. He made a turn and stopped the car. Then, he opened and shut the door and walked around to the passenger seat. Natalia, who had busied herself by humming a U2 song stuck in her head, didn't notice Ryan behind her.

"Boo."

She threw a punch backward, which he caught easily.

"Don't. Do. That," she growled.

She could practically hear his smug grin. "Come on," he said. "Take my hands."

"Not after that," she faux-whined.

"I promise," he said solemnly, "I will make sure you survive the walk to where we're going."

Her shoulders instantly relaxed after hearing his promise. "Fine," she said. She swiveled her feet around toward the door and extended her hands towards Ryan. He took them and helped her carefully step down from the car. They walked for a few minutes in silence, hand in hand. Natalia noticed that the area they were in was almost completely silent…except for the sound of rushing water.

She smiled a full-blown smile. "You brought me to the beach," she grinned.

"Good to know you qualify to be a first-year CSI," he said snarkily.

Natalia promptly elbowed him in the ribs. He winced but still patiently held onto her hand as they walked across the sand. The sun beat down on the two, and Natalia felt that she wouldn't mind doing this with Ryan again.

"Can I take my blindfold off, since I know where we are?" she asked.

"One minute," he said cajolingly.

"You patronizing me?" she said warningly.

"I'd never patronize you, Talia," he replied, squeezing her hand quickly.

She suddenly dropped his hand like it was an open flame and stiffened. The two walked the rest of the distance in awkward silence.

Natalia wanted to kick herself. It wouldn't have been awkward if she hadn't made it that way. It had just been a friendly gesture, but she had treated it like he was proposing out of the blue. Damn, she needed to get over her embarrassment before it ruined her friendship with him.

They finally stopped walking. "Okay," he said softly. "You can take off your blindfold now."

She reached up behind her but found that Ryan, in one of his OCD moments, had tied the knot too tight.

"Uh, since when do you tie these so tight?" she grumbled.

"I'll help you out," he said, and he moved behind her to untie the kerchief. His hands worked quickly and smoothly, and within a few seconds Natalia was staring at the most beautiful afternoon on Miami Beach she had ever seen. She looked at him hesitantly. He nodded his head and slowly slipped off his shoes. She nodded back, kicked off her heels, and ran straight into the waves, Ryan tight on her heels.

He pushed her down, and as a huge wave crested, she pulled him down beneath the water. They sputtered and gasped for air a minute later when they came to the surface. Natalia looked at Ryan, and any previous awkwardness faded as they burst out laughing at the sight of them. They looked ridiculous: two police detectives in their mid-thirties, fully clothed, splashing each other and playing in the ocean like they were six. And as Talia nudged Ryan's shoulder with her head and he pulled her into a hug, neither of them could help grinning. This had been the most fun they'd had in weeks, and it was hard for Natalia to feel guilty about firing off shots at Ryan in a daze when he had pulled out all the stops for her to feel even remotely happy.

"Thank you," she said, and much more than simple gratitude was evident in her face as she leaned against him.


End file.
